Canada drops Group 1 match to Poland in World League volleyball
Loss moves Canadian squad to bottom of standings
The Canadian men's team fell to Poland in their final match of the weekend in World League volleyball and are now 3-3 heading into the final phase of the preliminary round.
Poland won in four sets, 3-1 (25-21, 27-25, 20-25, 25-19), and with the loss, Canada dropped to the bottom of the Group 1 standings.
It's a pity," said Canada's coach, Stephane Antiga, pointing out that his squad has three athletes who play left side with injuries. "But we didn't give up; there were some good moments. This will make things more complicated to advance to the final six [of World League], but this team is learning so much. We'll see what happens next week."
Canada closes out their second weekend of FIVB World League volleyball and currently sit in 7th place <a href="https://t.co/eQtMej3q6Y">https://t.co/eQtMej3q6Y</a> <a href="https://t.co/1DMpSxp9Ud">pic.twitter.com/1DMpSxp9Ud</a>
—@CBCOlympicsTeam captain Gord Perrin, who played a strong match the day prior against Bulgaria, was sidelined with an injury on Sunday.
Poland's Dawid Konarski and Canada's Ryley Barnes topped the scoring charts with 15 points each.
Nick Hoag, who joined Canada this week in Europe, sees a young team that is growing together.
"We are learning to play with each other, but we're fighting. We're a young team, which is nice, and we're competing against the best, and we're actually competing and not just getting smacked. We would have liked a few more points this weekend, but we're happy [about winning yesterday]."
Canada opened the second week of the preliminary round on Friday with a loss to Brazil, the reigning Olympic champions, but bounced back to defeat host Bulgaria on Saturday.
The Canadians went 2-1 in their first week of action in Group 1 last weekend, beating Belgium and the U.S. before taking a loss to Serbia.
Belgium is up next for Canada on Friday, June 16 at 2 p.m. ET, which you can watch live on CBCSports.ca.
Canada's men's team readies for its World League Group 1 debut : <a href="https://t.co/BUsIrCFh0u">https://t.co/BUsIrCFh0u</a> <a href="https://t.co/Cf1qsSCHSF">pic.twitter.com/Cf1qsSCHSF</a>
—@VBallCanadaThe FIVB World League is the premier annual men's volleyball tournament with a total of 36 participating teams in 2017.
The 36 teams have been split into three groups of 12 teams and will play the preliminary round in a pool format over three weeks, before the best teams gather for the finals in each group.
Due to their strong play last season, Canada has been promoted to the top tier in this year's event, known as Group 1.